For the time being, it seems as if Fabricio Coloccini is staying at St James’ Park – despite insisting that he wanted to return to Argentina for personal reasons.

Sky Sports are reporting that San Lorenzo, the South American club who were looking to sign the centre-back, have admitted defeat in their pursuit:

“Finally, after long negotiations, we announce that Fabricio Coloccini will not join the squad of San Lorenzo

It was not possible to release the Newcastle player for this month and therefore the club will look for another alternative to strengthen the defence.”

That’s from San Lorenzo’s official Twitter feed.

Of course, depending on Coloccini’s determination to return home and the nature of his personal problems, he may still end up leaving Newcastle at some point – but the club have seen off the most immediate threat.

It’s an obvious point to make, but Alan Pardew and the owners need to do whatever they can to keep Coloccini – regardless of the new signings, he remains the club’s best defender by some distance. At the very least, it would be useful to defer his departure until the Summer when a new first-choice centre-back pairing can be properly moulded in readiness for next season.